China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

has set the goal of attaining one percent of its

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

generation through bioenergy in 2020. The development of bioenergy in China is needed to meet the rising energy demand. Several institutions are involved in this development, most notably the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...

and China's Ministry of Agriculture. There is also an added incentive to develop the bioenergy sector which is to increase the development of the rural agricultural sector. As of 2005, bioenergy use has reached more than 20 million households in the rural areas, with methane gas as the main biofuel. Also more than 4000 bioenergy facilities produce 8 billion cubic metres every year of methane gas. By 2006 20% of "gasoline" consumed was actually a 10% ethanol-gasoline blend. ('
People's Daily Online
'') As of 2010, electricity generation by bioenergy is expected to reach 5 GW, and 30 GW by 2020. The annual use of methane gas is expected to be 19 cubic kilometers by 2010, and 40 cubic kilometers by 2020. *China is the world's third-largest producer of

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

, after

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

.RFA
*Although only 0.71% of the country's grain yield (3.366 million tons of grain) in 2006 was used for production of

, concern has been expressed over potential conflicts between demands for food and fuel, as crop prices rose in late 200

As of at least 2023, China is both the world's largest producer and largest consumer of household

biogas Biogas is a gaseous renewable energy source produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste, Wastewater treatment, wastewater, and food waste. Biogas is produced by anaerobic ...

. As of 2023, more than 30 million rural Chinese households use biogas digesters.

Events

*10–12 October 2006, Beijing, China: '
Asia Biofuels Conference and Expo IV
''. *24–27 October 2006, Beijing, China: '
Great Wall Renewable Energy Forum
''. Includes a technical conference and trade show. *7–9 November 2006; Beijing, China: '
Hart's 5th Annual World Refining and Fuels Conference: Asia
'', Hotel Kunlun.

Developments

*'

'', 23 June 2007 from chinagate.com.cn. Daxu wins an Ashden Award for producing over 25,000 efficient stoves that can burn crop waste for cooking and hot water. More details availabl
here
*'
CASP agreement to benefit biofuel producers in Mekong
'', 11 April 2007 from Biofuelreview.com. Agriculture ministers from 6 countries,

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

, China,

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

have endorsed the Core Agricultural Support Program, which will work toward increasing trade and investment in agriculture in the Greater Mekong Subregion. A major focus will be helping farmers reap the benefits of new

energy crops Energy crops are low-cost and low-maintenance crops grown solely for renewable bioenergy production (not for food). The crops are processed into Solid fuel, solid, liquid or gaseous fuels, such as Pellet fuel, pellets, bioethanol or biogas. T ...

and related technologies. *'
Chinese Biofuels Expansion Threatens Ecological Balance
'', March 27, 2007 from Renewable Energy Access. A recent agreement between China's top forestry authority and one of the nation's biggest energy giants to develop biofuels plantations in the southwest may come at great environmental loss to the region's forests and biological diversity. *'
China plans to plant an area the size of England with biofuel trees
'' 8 February 2007 fro
China Daily
China will plant 130,000 square kilometres, an area the size of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, with Jatropha trees to produce oil amounting to nearly 6 million tons of

biodiesel Biodiesel is a renewable biofuel, a form of diesel fuel, derived from biological sources like vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled greases, and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made from fats. The roots of bi ...

every year. The jatropha trees can also provide wood fuel for a power plant with an installed capacity of 12 million kilowatts, will account for 30% of the country's

by 2010. *'
Ethanol fuels hopes of China's small farmers
'' 29 January 2007 fro
The Standard
Beijing's push to create more

from

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

and

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

may benefit farmers in Guanxi, but with China already a net-importer of tapioca and

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

it is not clear that there will be enough feedstocks to go around. * 23 January 2007 from . China is looking at new

feedstocks including a new variety of rapeseed, Chinese pistachio and jatropha. However, standards and regulations are lacking and concerns over food vs fuel are growing. *'
Biofuels eat into China's food stocks
'' - 21 December 2006 from Asia Times Online. China has clamped down on the use of corn and other edible grains for producing biofuels due to concerns that it will impact on

food security Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy Human food, food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Simila ...

. * China Clean Energy outlines plan to expand

capacity using palm oil leavings as a feedstoc
(go to story)
'' - 18 December 2006 fro
Biofuel Review
*China halts expansion of corn-based ethanol industry to arrest food price ris
(go to story)
'' - 20 December 2006 fro
newKerala.com
*'
Shaanxi Mothers win top environmental award
'', 16 June 2006 from blueskieschina.com. Shaanxi Mothers wins an Ashden Award for the fitting of almost 1,300 biogas systems in farming households across China's Shaanxi Province. More details availabl
here

Policy

The Renewable Energy Law of the People's Republic of China
- English translation of the law, which took effect 1 January 2006.

Targets

*Target of 10% renewable energy of the country's total energy consumption by 2010. *Alternative fuels: 6 million tons by 2010 and 15 million tons by 202

*Target of 50% use of ethanol-blended gasoline by 2010. *China has an annual production capacity of 1.02 million tons of ethanol. (source:'
People's Daily Online

Issues

Biofuel production

*" Corn accounted for 76 percent of the 1.02 million tons of ethanol produced" in 200

Bioenergy potential

*" Non-grain crops in China could eventually produce as much as 300 million

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

a year, according to a report on the National Development and Reform Commission's websit

Organizations

Regional organizations

* Core Agriculture Support Program - A program that includes southern China and the countries of the Mekong Subregion in South-East Asia, that provides support for

biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...

feedstock and other agricultural programs.

Government organizations

*'
english.gov.net
'' is the main English language portal for the Chinese Government. Many agencies do not yet have English language pages. China's circulars on bioenergy policy have been co-released by the following agencies: *'

'' English overview of the NDRC, which is "a macro-economic regulatory department, with a mandate to develop national economic strategies". It deals with China's targets for biofuels. **'
NDRC (Chinese only)
'' *'
State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)
'' *'

''The Ministry of Finance helps regulate subsidies and tax policy for bioenergy. **'
MOF (Chinese)
'' *'
Ministry of Agriculture (Chinese)
*'
State Forestry Administration (Chinese)
'' *'
State Administration of Taxation
''

Government websites (English)

*'

'' with an overview of Chinese environmental law, policy and case studies relating to cleaner production and the

circular economy A circular economy (also referred to as circularity or CE) is a model of resource Production (economics), production and Resource consumption, consumption in any economy that involves sharing, leasing, Reuse, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and ...

. *'
China Climate Change Info-Net
'' Information on laws, events, organizations and news dealing with climate change and renewable energy in China.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

Companies

* China National Petroleum Corporation **CNPC, through its subsidiary Jilin Fuel Ethanol Ltd. Co, built China's first ethanol plant using corn as a feedstock and now runs several other ethanol projects. Press Release
China's First fuel ethanol line into production in Jilin
27 November 2003. *'
China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (Chinese only)
'' **Plans to invest more than US$1 billion in

projects to increase production capacity to 3 million tons. **Currently owns an ethanol plant in

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang is a province in northeast China. It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point (in Mohe City along the Amur) and easternmost point (at the confluence of the Amur and Us ...

Province and has a 20 percent stake in another plant in

Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...

Province, both using corn as a feedstock **The company is constructing an ethanol plant, which will use

as a feedstock, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. **Is awaiting Government permission to build two 300,000-ton-per-year ethanol plants in Hebei Province, using corn and sweet potatoes, and Liaoning Province, using only sweet potatoes. (source
Climate Change China Info-Net (.gov site)
*'

'' Large scale ethanol and

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

producer, using corn and

. Also doing research into cellulosic ethanol. *'
China Integrated Energy
'' China Integrated Energy, Inc. is a leading non-state-owned, integrated energy company in China engaged in three business segments: the wholesale distribution of finished oil and heavy oil products, the production and sale of biodiesel, and the operation of retail gas stations. ;Publicly traded companies At least two publicly traded companies, China Clean Energy, Inc. and Gushan, manufacture and sell significant amounts of biodiesel in China.

Publications

*'
People's Republic of China Bio-Fuels: An Alternative Future for Agriculture 2006
'' prepared by Kevin Latner, Caleb O'Kray, Junyang Jiang;

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...

Foreign Agricultural Service, 8 August 2006. *'
Environmental and Social Impact Analysis: Stora Enso Plantation project in Guangxi, China
''

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

, 5 February 2006. This analyzes the social and environmental impact of a large-scale forest plantation project by Stora Enso. Although this project is intended to supply pulp, its impacts are the same as if it were supplying bioenergy. *'
Liquid Biofuels for Transportation: Chinese Potential and Implications for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy in the 21st Century (PDF file)
'' - GTZ, 2005. *'
Health, Ecological, Energy And Economic Impacts Of Integrated Agricultural Bioenergy Systems In China And Institutional Strategies For Their Successful Diffusion (pdf)
'' by John Byrne, Young-Doo Wang, William Ritter (supervisors); Center for Energy and Environment Policy, U. of Delaware, October 2004. ;Other
Biomass energy in China and its potentialRethinking China’s bioenergy future
Lin Gan - May 21, 2007

References

External links

Biogas Scientific Research Institute
of the Ministry of Agriculture {{Renewable energy by country Bioenergy Renewable energy in China Science and technology in the People's Republic of China